Thursday, 27 March 2014

Battle of Talana Hill

Sir George Stuart White, commanding the British division at Ladysmith, had unwisely allowed Major-General Penn Symons to throw a brigade forward to the coal-mining town of Dundee (also reported as Glencoe), which was surrounded by hills. This became the site of the first engagement of the war, the Battle of Talana Hill. Boer guns began shelling the British camp from the summit of Talana Hill at dawn on 20 October. Penn Symons immediately counter-attacked. His infantry drove the Boers from the hill, but at the cost of 446 British casualties including Penn Symons. This was the script for our game.

In our game we decided to attack the highest peak on our right, the one without the trees in front of it. The plan was to storm it and then push down the ridge while our guns shelled the middle hill hopefully pinning any Boers there.

Well the assult shoved up the hill taking fire all the way. The two flank battalions pushed on quickly racing to get through the beaten zone as quickly as possible. The centre battalion was failing to keep up the hammer blow envisioned now look a lot more bitty.

The two horns if you like now swung round on each flank of the boer position and launched the assault into the position. At this point we called it a day as we had run out of time.